Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Kong: Skull Island Review (2017)

“Kong: Skull Island” takes a classic cheesy monster movie
premise (a group of explorers encountering a new land/frontier and having to
fight its strange, vicious inhabitants in order to survive) and infuses it with
the turbulence and “war-is-hell” mindset of the Vietnam War/ counter-culture
movement era. The picture is set days after the war’s conclusion and tension is
still in the air. There are anti- war protesters demonstrating in Washington
and returning soldiers are still haunted by the horror’s they’ve experienced.

We observe this post war disillusionment most clearly in
Preston Packard (Samuel L Jackson), a bitter, slightly deranged, battle worn
colonel who isn’t quite over the war. He’s been tasked with escorting a group
of assorted travelers (made up of fellow soldiers, scientists, photographers
and mercenaries) to a recently discovered Island in the Pacific wherein a
variety of undiscovered monsters reside, including the titanic gorilla Kong.

This is an intriguing concept that sadly doesn’t hold
together from a tonal standpoint and its execution is so sloppy and bland that
you’re bored to tears when there isn’t a monster fight going on or a gnarly
death scene.

The heavy-handed screenplay by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein
and Derek Connolly talks down to us like we’re eleven years old. Everything--
plot, exposition and major themes, is explained and over explained to the point
of tedium. The opening fifteen minutes, as expedition leader Bill Randa (John
Goodman) rounds up his rag tag group of travelers, consists of one boring and
contrived expository scene after another. For example, we first meet tracker
James Conrad (Tom Hiddelson) when he gets into a random scuffle with a
switchblade wielding punk in the middle of a Bangkok bar while “While Rabbit”
plays in the background. Later on, in a lame attempt to build anticipation and
tension, the team has to fly through a CGI storm to reach the island.

Any interesting Vietnam/anti war subtext (the idea that war
is hell, the idea that war can numb you to the point where seeing a giant
gorilla isn’t very shocking, the idea that “the enemy” is a subjective
construct) is violently pulled up to the surface during every scene through
painfully clunky dialogue exchanges. Little is left for the audience to
interpret or discover on their own. During one scene, in which war photographer
Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) and Conrad talk about the negative effects of the
conflict, Conrad says bluntly: “I suppose no man really comes home from the
war.” Yeah. Cool. Thanks James.

Though it isn’t just the Vietnam/anti war stuff that’s
heavy-handed. Any and all basic plot/expository developments are sounded out
for the viewer. In a later scene, when the team encounters a ditch containing
the bones of other giant apes, island inhabitant Hank Marlow (John C Reilly) remarks
that they are “the remains of Kong’s parents.” Gee, Hank, I think the other
characters (and the audience) can come to that conclusion without your
interjection. And Weaver then saying that she’s seen “enough mass graves to
recognize one” further emphasizes just how little nuance/subtlety there is in
the storytelling. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts rarely just lets the images
speak for themselves.

Speaking of characters, with the exception of Packard and
Marlow, the explorers are entirely unmemorable-- they’re empty vessels used to
explain plot points and themes to the audience…or get killed. Somehow the film
manages to waste Brie Larson, Tom Hiddelson and
John Goodman, an impressive and somewhat depressing feat. In fact, there
are long stretches of time where Goodman is absent from the film, making you
forget he even exists. It’s a sin for a movie to make you forget about John
Goodman. For shame “Kong.” For shame.

Tonally, “Skull Island” is constantly at odds with itself as
it tries to balance comedy and drama. While there’s nothing wrong with mixing
drama with comedy, the tonal shifts here almost too abrupt and the comedy is
played too broadly. Extremely silly screwball exchanges are immediately
followed by intense, “war-is-hell, man!” moments. A stirring, unsettling homage
to “Apocalypse Now” (this movie quotes excessively from Francis Ford Coppola’s
film) is followed by a ludicrous, out
of left field sequence in which a Samurai sword wielding gas mask wearing Tom
Hiddelson charges in slow motion through a cloud of poisonous gas slicing and
dicing some creepy-crawlies. Reilly, playing a bumbling and eccentric castaway,
can be a hoot to watch but it feels like he’s in an entirely different movie. Most
of the time the comedy grinds the action to a halt rather than propelling it
forward. And ultimately, it undermines the Vietnam/anti war material—rendering it
facile and cartoonish.

In the end, the only material that consistently works
involves the monsters. It’s exciting and occasionally absurd--there are a
number of memorable character deaths and man vs. creature (or creature vs.
creature) fight scenes. You’ll be bored to tears one minute as characters take
turns explaining the plot to each other and then suddenly someone will get
carried off by a flock of winged reptiles or getting eaten by a giant lizard, making you perk up in delight.

But then the characters will go back to explaining the plot
and you’ll wish you were the one who got carried off by winged reptiles. Much
like “Jurassic World,” when the monsters are onscreen causing mayhem and
killing people, “Kong: Skull Island” is watchable. Otherwise, the film is a
powerful sleep aid.